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Jessi H.

Biography

Jessi H.

Teen Board Member

Moose Pass, Alaska

Hi! I'm Jessi, I'm 17-years-old, and I'm a senior in high school. I think young adult literature is incredibly valuable and ever since I was in elementary school, I have loved to read it. Besides reading, I enjoy volleyball, blogging and changing my nail polish color. I live in the big and cold state of Alaska! Outside of the United States, I've been to Canada and Costa Rica, but I hope to travel to more of the world someday. Until then, I will travel through books!

Top Five Favorite Books:
1. The Hunger Games trilogy by Suzanne Collins
2. HOW TO MAKE A WISH by Ashley Herring Blake
3. THE HATE U GIVE by Angie Thomas
4. WARCROSS by Marie Lu
5. QUEENS OF GEEK by Jen Wilde

Jessi H.

Reviews by Jessi H.

When Berkley arrived in Italy a week ago, the last thing she expected was that she'd end up fighting for her life. After spending six months at the Institute, confined to a room with the dangerous-yet-alluring Sofia Flores, Berkley was certain that a vacation in Italy with her two best friends would be the perfect getaway. But Berkley is hiding a terrible secret, one that threatens to undo everything. As she's forced to face her wicked past, she learns that the devil is always watching, and no one is coming to save her.

Seventeen, fashion-obsessed and gay, Abby Ives has always been content playing the sidekick in other people’s lives. While her friends and sister have plunged headfirst into the world of dating and romances, Abby’s been happy to focus on her plus-size style blog and her dreams of taking the fashion industry by storm. When she lands a great internship at her favorite boutique, she’s thrilled to take the first step toward her dream career. Then she falls for her fellow intern, Jordi Perez. Hard. And now she’s competing against the girl she’s kissing to win the coveted paid job at the end of the internship.

Her mother died when she was 12, and suddenly Artemisia Gentileschi had a stark choice: a life as a nun in a convent or a life grinding pigment for her father's paint. She chose paint. By the time she was 17, Artemisia did more than grind pigment. She was one of Rome's most talented painters, even if no one knew her name. But Rome in 1610 was a city where men took what they wanted from women, and in the aftermath of rape Artemisia faced another terrible choice: a life of silence or a life of truth, no matter the cost.

Sixteen-year-old Zarin is many things: a bright and vivacious student, an orphan, a risk taker. She’s also the kind of girl that parents warn their kids to stay away from: a troublemaker whose many romances are the subject of endless gossip. So how is it that 18-year-old Porus has only ever had eyes for her? And how did Zarin and Porus end up dead in a car together, crashed on the side of a highway in Saudi Arabia? When the religious police arrive on the scene, everything everyone thought they knew about Zarin is questioned. And as her story is pieced together, told through multiple perspectives, it becomes clear that she was far more than just a girl like that.

Olivia Clayton has mastered the art of tearing others down to stay on top. She and her best friend, Adrienne, rule their small southern town like all good mean girls do --- through intimidation and manipulation. Until Olivia suffers a family tragedy and catches Adrienne sleeping with her boyfriend. Olivia decides to make a change, but it's impossible to resist taking down Adrienne one last time. Up to her old tricks, Olivia convinces golden boy Whit Du Rant to be her SAT tutor and her fake boyfriend. But when it starts to feel real, Whit gets caught up in Olivia and Adrienne’s war.

American-born 17-year-old Maya Aziz is torn between worlds. There’s the proper one her parents expect for their good Indian daughter: attending a college close to home and marrying a "suitable" Muslim boy. And then there is the world of her dreams: going to school in New York City --- and maybe pursuing a boy she’s known from afar since grade school. There’s also the real world. In the aftermath of a horrific crime perpetrated hundreds of miles away, the community she’s known since birth becomes unrecognizable; neighbors and classmates alike are consumed with fear, bigotry and hatred. Ultimately, Maya must find the strength within to determine where she truly belongs.

In Savannah Espinoza’s small New Mexico hometown, kids either flee after graduation or they’re trapped there forever. Vanni never planned to get stuck --- but that was before her father was diagnosed with Huntington’s disease, leaving her and her mother to care for him. Now she doesn’t have much of a plan at all: living at home, working as a performing mermaid at a second-rate water park, distracting herself with one boy after another. That changes the day she meets Leigh.

For 10 years, figure skating was Tillie Walden’s life. She woke before dawn for morning lessons, went straight to group practice after school and spent weekends competing at ice rinks across the state. But as she switched schools, got into art and fell in love with her first girlfriend, she began to question how the close-minded world of figure skating fit in with the rest of her life and whether all the work was worth it. The more Tillie thought about it, the more Tillie realized she’d outgrown her passion --- and she finally needed to find her own voice.

Jessi H.

Books On Screen

November's Books on Screen roundup includes the feature filmsThe Nutcracker and the Four Realms, The Grinch and Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald; the debut of the Hallmark made-for-TV holiday movie, "Pride and Prejudice and Mistletoe"; the ongoing series "Black Lightning," "The Flash," and "Arrow," all on The CW; and the DVD releases of Crazy Rich Asians, and The Little Mermaid.

Adult Books You Want to Read

Throughout the year, Teenreads.com features adult books from Bookreporter.com, our site for adult readers, that we think will have definite appeal to a teen audience. In the spirit of sharing, we are now spotlighting a selection of titles each month from Bookreporter.com that we believe are great reads that you might enjoy.Explore our picks here!